1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to spring clips for clamping garments to clothes hangers, and relates in particular to such clips provided with bumper guards for preventing accidental or unintended release of garments from the clips.
2. Description of Prior Developments
Garment hangers are available in numerous configurations for the general purpose of releasably clamping a garment to a hooked hanger so as to allow the garment to be suspended from a closet hanger rod, a retail clothes rack, a shipping rack, or any other support. One such hanger is disclosed by Braitrim in European Pat. 8909821.4. This hanger, known variously as a bottom hanger, shirt hanger or pant hanger includes a conventional hanger bar and two clips.
The Braitrim clip clamps closed by the action of a resilient metal or plastic spring piece which pushes apart the top of the clip jaws and applies clamping pressure to the bottom of the clip jaws.
This type of hanger has several advantages as well as drawbacks. An advantage is that the pressure on the garment is very significant and therefore retailers experience less problems with garments unintentionally dropping off the hangers. Consumers find the clip easier to manipulate than the "grip-it" style hanger as disclosed by Batts in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,698,607 and 3,767,092.
A major inconvenience associated with the type of clips disclosed in the Braitrim and Batts patents is that when clipped garments are shipped or otherwise arranged in tight side-by-side contact with one another, the tops of the clips abut one another thereby pushing the jaws of the clips open, releasing the garments and dropping them on the floor. A need therefore exists to prevent hanger clips from opening due to inadvertent lateral pressure from garments hanging next to each other during shipment and otherwise.